WASHINGTON — President-elect Joe Biden Monday briefed the nation on the coronavirus Monday morning, pushing for universal mask wearing and acknowledging that cases are sure to climb into the winter months.
“We’re ready to get to work addressing the needs of the American people. Today that work begins. It starts with doing everything possible to get the COVID-19 under control,” Biden said to a crowd of reporters at The Queen theater in Wilmington, Del.
Both Biden and Harris received an economic and COVID briefing from advisors prior to the address.
Biden is positioned to inherit a grim coronavirus surge. According to the New York Times, 1 in 144 Americans tested positive for the virus last week. And most up-to-date data from Johns Hopkins University shows a total of 9,982,054 infections and 237,608 deaths.
“We’re still facing a very dark winter,” Biden continued, noting that both infections and deaths are going up.
Reuters
In an effort to come out in front of pandemic mitigation efforts before inauguration, the Biden-Harris transition team announced their COVID-19 advisory board Monday morning. The campaign had its own coronavirus team, but they advised mostly on logistical issues, i.e., dissolving in-person headquarters in Philadelphia, suggesting staffers work from home, and making recommendations on how many individuals could safely be in the former vice president’s orbit at a time.
Some of those individuals held over, including former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. David Kessler and former Surgeon General Vivek Murthy. Notable is the inclusion of immunologist Rick Bright, a former Trump administration Health and Human Services official who was removed from his post after sounding an alarm on “an abuse of authority or gross mismanagement” at the agency.
In his remarks Monday, Biden said more experts will be added to the board. He pledged to expand free testing, create a vaccine distribution plan, and expand personal protective equipment production.
“The bottom line: I will spare no effort to turn this pandemic around once we’re sworn in on Jan. 20,” Biden said.
Reuters
Biden’s message comes amid a new coronavirus outbreak in the White House and Trump’s orbit. Both chief of staff Mark Meadows and Housing and Urban Development secretary Ben Carson have tested positive for the virus over the past few days. Carson and Meadows attended the White House election night party Tuesday, according to Bloomberg News, alongside Bill Barr, Steve Mnuchin, Alex Azar and others.
The president, who recently recovered from a bout with COVID-19 himself, has repeatedly insisted that the country is “rounding the turn” on the virus, though data indicates that’s not the case, with new infections surging to all-time highs.
During his remarks, Biden repeated several times that he was not yet president, but wanted to come out to urge mask wearing and insist on bipartisan participation in mitigation efforts.
“Please, I implore you, wear a mask,” Biden said. “We can save tens of thousands of lives if everyone would just wear a mask. Not Democrat or Republican lives — American lives.”
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